Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Making a Cell's Contents Bold within a Macro.

Making a Cell's Contents Bold within a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 16, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

If you are writing macros using VBA, it is not uncommon to process data and place the results of your processing into cells in a worksheet. If desired, you can also make the results in a bold typeface so that they stand out. You do this by setting the Bold property of the Font object for a selection.

For instance, if you wanted to make the contents of cell A1 bold, you could use the following in your macro:

Cells(1, 1).Font.Bold = True

Likewise, if you wanted to make the currently selected cell bold, you could use the following code:

Selection.Font.Bold = True

If you wanted to explicitly turn off the bold attribute of a particular cell, all you need to do is change True to False in the foregoing examples.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8775) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Making a Cell's Contents Bold within a Macro.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Returning the Smallest Non-Zero Value

In a series of values you may need to know the smallest value that isn't a zero. There is no built-in function to do ...

Discover More

Creating an Inline Heading

When settling on an overall design for your document, you need to decide how you want your headings to appear. If you ...

Discover More

Updating Fields Automatically

You can place dynamic fields into many parts of your document. If your document contains a lot of fields, you might ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Ensuring Conditional Formatting and Data Validation is Copied

If you use an Excel worksheet for entering data (a quite common task, actually), then you need to be concerned with how ...

Discover More

Professional Looking Fractions

Professional typesetting has, in many ways, spoiled us. One way this is evident is in the preference we show for making ...

Discover More

Locking the Background Color

You can spend a lot of time getting the formatting in your worksheets just right. If you want to protect an element of ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.